The Army conducted the first test flight of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon concept Thursday morning at the Pacific Missile Range on Kauai.

The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Forces Strategic Command’s test was intended to give the Pentagon a "global strike" ability to quickly hit worldwide targets without using nuclear weapons. The rocket and hypersonic "glide body" were expected to travel about 2,500 miles.

The first-of-its-kind glide vehicle, designed to fly within Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed, launched from Kauai at 1:30 a.m. to the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The data collected will be used by the Pentagon to model and develop future hypersonic boost-glide capabilities.

Hypersonic speeds are defined as Mach 5 (about 3,600 mph) or higher. A Pentagon news release did not say how fast the vehicle flew. On Aug. 11 the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 reached Mach 20, or about 13,000 mph, before crashing into the Pacific.

The Pentagon said the goal of Thursday’s test was to collect data on hypersonic boost-glide technologies and test range performance for long-range atmospheric flight.

A three-stage booster system launched the vehicle and deployed it on the desired flight trajectory, officials said. The vehicle flew at hypersonic speed to the planned impact location at the U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll/Reagan Test Site. Space, air, sea and ground platforms collected vehicle performance data during all phases of the flight.

The military did not release images of the AHW glide vehicle, although a June environmental assessment for the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon Program shows a dartlike projectile.

The Pentagon has said that the goal of its hypersonic efforts is to develop a technology that could deliver a non-nuclear warhead anywhere within an hour.

In an interview in August, Tom Collina, research director at the Arms Control Association in Washington, said the technology is unconstrained by New Start, a nuclear arms reduction agreement signed last year by the U.S. and Russia, and is unlikely to be confused as a nuclear weapon because its trajectory is unlike the parabolic curve of a ballistic missile.

"Most people perceive this to be a niche capability," he said. "You’re not going to build more than a dozen or two of these things."

The hypersonic "glide body" was planned to impact the northwest end of Illeginni Islet, with two possible water landings also considered in the environmental assessment.

One water impact zone was in deep water southwest of Illeginni Islet; the second ocean was northeast of Kwajalein Atoll.

Following launch the glide body was to separate from the booster and glide at hypersonic velocities in the upper atmosphere toward Kwajalein Atoll.

The impact on Illeginni Islet would form a crater, but the glide body’s energy release on impact "is currently unknown," the environmental assessment said.

The assessment said the impact would be less than previous Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile test impacts on Illeginni. Prior tests created craters averaging 20 to 25 feet across and 15 feet deep.